So me and my family are going to Bangkok in December for about 2 weeks. My brother is getting married on dec 24th but after that we are planning on visiting other parts of thailand. What would you recommend we see? We will be there from the 20th - jan 2nd. and my parents will actually stay till jan. 10th.

Their beaches are nice for campfires with some American beer and marshmallows. Check out the Ching Mei Monastery, along with the White Lion Bar in Bangkok. You'll be remissed if you don't visit the tattoo parlor right next to the White Lion. It's got some cool pics on the wall. Beware of the bad electrical grid in Bangkok, as the power will go out frequently. This means your hotel ice box might shut down and melt, and your elevator will not work. Try to live on a bottom floor so no one gets stuck while riding the elevator if the power goes out. If you see monkeys running around, don't get their attention. A large number of monkeys within Bangkok are actually drug middlemen. Also, never ever ever take your brother who is getting married to one of the strip clubs in Bangkok. He might find a little sausage surprise if he does.

Don't stay in a hostel on Khao San Road. That was the biggest mistake I made during my trip. Place was sketchy as hell

The palace is really cool and I recommend checking it out. I recommend one of the strip club shows for the pure bizarreness factor. Wat Pho, the temple with the giant Buddha, was cool. If you have the money, I really recommend Ko Phi Phi down in Phuket. Especially if you stay in a hotel away from the bay. The island is absolutely stunning and my favorite part of my trip to Thailand. The floating market is also cool but you have to get there EARLY, otherwise it just becomes a clusterfuck. Oh yeah, and if you're into cooking lessons, the one recommended in Lonely Planet in Bangkok was a lot of fun and worth the money.

Two pieces of advise to not get screwed out of money in Bangkok: 1) Don't ever listen to some dude that tells you a tourist attraction is closed. All the major ones are always open and if it were closed, you'd know about it from a legit source. Those guys are just trying to get you to do some stupid ass tour of theirs where they send you to a fake jewel shop. I had a guy try to pull this on us when we were talking to Wat Pho. And sure enough, Wat Pho was open when we got there

2) Don't ever ride in a taxi that refuses to turn on their meter. These taxis will ALWAYS be more expensive than one that does use its meter. It may take you 30 minutes to find a taxi driver willing to use their meter, but you will easily save $5-10 asking around rather than hopping into the first cab you see. And ALWAYS ask them to use their meter BEFORE getting in the cab, not after

Old thread, but I'll bump since I'm going next month. A stopover in HK, 3 days/2 nights in Bangkok, a week on Ko Samui (doing the full moon party on Koh Phangan), 3 days/ 2 nights in Chiang Mai, and 36 hours in Singapore. Where must I eat and party?

I did a similar trip for my honeymoon, and I went to Singapore on my last deployment.

Ko Samui: Check out the big food market on the south of the island. It's good, and just about everyone there will serve you alcohol so party as much as you want. You also might be able to find a fire show somewhere. When I was there, those were always cool and full of drunk Australian chicks (read: shooting fish in a barrel, experience from an earlier time in my life) if that's what you're into. Also, there are a couple of tours around the island to just look at touristy stuff. They're all pretty much the same, and just okay. I think there's an elephant riding place on this island too, but they're not known for their humane practices, so we stayed away from that place. Also on a tour is a "well known" waterfall. It was a total scam. It was super crowded, and you could see where they PUMPED THE WATER UP THE MOUNTAIN to keep the tourist trap open. That was probably the most disappointing part of the trip.

Ko Phangan: the full moon party seems pretty epic. I think there's also a cool watermark to check out. (big slide that shoots you into the air, you may have seen it on FB) We stayed at some family owned resort that barely had power on the other side of the island so we didn't go to either of them, but they seemed pretty awesome.

Singapore: Pretty much all of the rooftop bars are a scam. They'll advertise that they're the best thing ever. If you're with a big group any one of them will do. If you're rolling with just a few guys looking for where the party is, I would stay away from those. The casino isn't bad, but the restaurants and bars AROUND the casino are legit. Also the Singapore zoo is LEGIT if you enjoy that stuff. Their Orangutan exhibit is all open and throughout the zoo, you'll be walking passed the reptile house and an orangutan will be hanging out above you... really cool.

Thanks for the advice. I'll be solo in HK and Chiang Mai and meeting some friends (some are married) in BK/Samui, so it's not going to be a non-stop party, which is why the Full Moon Party is a priority. I booked a private boat tour of Ang Thong for our group, so that should be fun too.